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Published: July 25th 2009
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Life in the camp for one pair of sisters
These girls provided a more human and individual perspective for me of this camp. Grime. Grime is something that is greasy, dark and no matter how many times you wash yourself, it seems like it will only take time before it completely goes away. As I walked through this Palestinian camp in Lebanon that was defined as temporary during its creation, one should keep in mind that was fifty years ago. Over these fifty years, I have the sense that the grime has settled here and now permeates this area. No matter how much one could try to keep themselves clean, by the very nature of this camp, the grime sticks.
This entry, unlike many of my other ones, is an attempt to show more of the world than is often given in the tourists brochures. After all, not everything worthwhile knowing is pleasent. While in Lebanon, I was able to meet up with a fellow teacher, whom I’ll refer to as the Doctor. The Doctor had some pretty good connections after living in this region for awhile. One of these connections, a UN personal at this Palestinian camp, was able to give us a tour covering ‘the road less traveled.’
While I have always thought there is simply no use for a
person who will only be negative and complain, there is a fine line between this person and one who has a story to tell. Perhaps the difference is that one person only wants to be angry, while the other wants to educate? Who can say for sure? One thing is for certain, when people are typically not aware of major world powers and the individual results of their actions, then a story that can bridge this difference is indeed a good one.
The history of how this camp and its inhabitants came to be in this condition is a long, political and complicated tale. Even with this brief attempt to re-trace the major steps, I’m sure more than half of the audience will find that I have it either wrong or that I am simply offensive. That being said, here goes:
1. A major piece of this puzzle is understanding Jewish history. For those of you who may not know much history, let's just keep it simple and say for around 2000 years if you were Jewish, you were persecuted or driven off your land as, almost as if by tradition.
2. Fast forward to the 1940’s, and we
A common alleyway
Here in the middle you can see how Arafat is still regarded have a major world war. With the Allies (including Britain) trying to undermine Hitler and the Axis powers, gaining territory and control over parts of the Middle East is a part of a successful strategy.
3. During this war, Hitler gained power through hate and scape goating. Meaning that if you’re not German, homosexual, retarded or Jewish, you’re suspect to extermination (referred to as the Holocaust).
4. With the defeat of Hitler and the Axis powers, the question arises, what to do with all the refugee Israel population? Britain’s answer: give them the land that was supposed to be theirs according to their religion (which had an over looked difficulty that Palestinian’s had been living there for a long time).
5. Once difficulties emerge between the Jewish and Palestinian population and the territory, Britain then came up with another solution: give the problem to the UN.
6. While the time of 50 years pass, temporary camps get set up for Palestinian refugees, wars break out for control of more real estate, political groups rise and fall, everyone gets more armed, religion gets used to justify pretty much whatever can be thought of, political views become one of the if not
Park for children
Behind this yellow van and beside the bombed building exists the area the local children refer to as a playground. the most important thoughts of a person and violence reaches such a heightened level that dying for one’s beliefs are simply a part of everyday life.
What does it all add up to for a simple historian and traveler such as myself? That fighting and death has become such a part of the daily life that tracing back its cause is no longer possible and probably no longer necessary. At least that’s what I imagine the girl I met thinks as she walks amongst the trash and probably believes that all playgrounds come with bombed out buildings as backdrops, all the while taking care of her little sister. There is no denying that this camp is grimy, and there is no denying the situation is sad.
While some may quickly jump up and blame these difficult conditions on the actions of the Israeli government and various Western supporters, I have to reply no so fast. Keep in mind this camp is in Lebanon, and has been so for almost three generations now. There is a reason why you don’t see these Palestinian’s working outside of this camp, bringing in more money. That reason is that the Lebanese government
Another version of Israel?
This poster, like many others, show how the Palestinian's have their own views. will not allow them to do so. For those who may not be aware, Lebanon is heavily controlled by a very militant group, democratically elected, called Hamas. Saying that Hamas disapproves of Israel is like saying the sun can get warm from time to time. However, it is difficult to understand how Hamas could be so focused on retaliation to the Israel government for their mistreatment of the Palestinian people, while at the same time, be okay with laws that continue their mistreatment in Hamas’ very own country.
The overall point of this example, that this situation is heavily complicated and tragic. While many want to help and offer funding and support for either side of this issue, more weapons and rhetoric seems to have only further muddied these already grimy waters. Being a traveler and coming face to face with the people who must live through the actions of various world powers, I think I will have to come to my own conclusions. While some may think it takes fire to fight fire, I reply that it takes fire upon fire to destroy a land and its people, even if these people have different religions.
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